Del,is everything bigger in TEXAS? Hail yes<g>
In addition to all that wonderful (sacrificial?) glass-clad competition in baseball-sized hail country, I note the absence of Global Solar's thin-film CIGs product, controlling backer John Walton (died in June?), at the McKinney test site. Also, WalMart's bigbox expansion in China with a new store in Shanghai coupled with Shanghai's recently announced feasibility study for 300-500MW of BIPV, makes me wonder if any of this will someday ring our cash register. If WalMart moves on these generating/conservation techs, in light of just-announced 30% commercial PV tax credits from Congress, how long will it take the other big box retailers, Home Depot, Target et al to come calling?
Meanwhile, upcoming solar IPOs such as SunPower in California and Q-cell in Germany should give Unisolar (and SIT?) a guide to market valuation. I figure cash raised from such an offering and/or sale leaseback of the 1st and 2nd machina could put more machinas in machine building's pipeline. I believe Bekaert/ECD did the sale leaseback on the first machine ~Dec 2001, 4 months before the first unveiling in April 2002. This time we've got backlog and by the time of the 10-K in Sept we'll know about profitability... or not. Favorable factors are converging IMO and no flies on the wall stuff because all mine are stuck to my flystrip.
Happy (dual) motoring in your new Prius!
Al |
